


Endymion

by oldmountainsoul



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sleeping Beauty Fusion, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Divergence, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Lucid Dreaming, i promise! eventually!, sort of???, sort of???? i guess????
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2018-12-31 12:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12132489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldmountainsoul/pseuds/oldmountainsoul
Summary: Whatever the Dean wanted, she got. She offered Laura's life in exchange for Carmilla's compliance, and it was an offer her daughter couldn't refuse.But when Laura doesn't wake up after her brush with the Dean, Carmilla is faced with another choice: to cut her losses and accept the 'gift' her mother is giving her of Laura, alive and safe, but stuck in some bizarre dream world, or risk getting them both killed to free Laura from whatever curse the Dean has put on her.Diverges after s1e31, something of a Sleeping Beauty AU.





	1. Chapter 1

“Now, now, darling,” the Dean chided as Carmilla stormed into her office. “I was under the impression that you wouldn’t be getting in my way. I’m _terribly_ busy, you know, preparing the sacrifices you’ve forced me to improvise.”

 

“Yes, Mother, we had a deal,” Carmilla hissed through gritted teeth, brandishing the ruby pendant in the Dean’s face. “And I will keep my end of it. But you’re going to tell me _exactly_ what it is you’ve done to Laura and how to fix it, _now._ ”

 

“You’re hardly in a position to be making threats, dear. And I’ve kept my end of the bargain. What with your behavior as of late, it should hardly be a surprise that I felt the need to include a few… _fail safes_ to save you from your own foolishness.” She nonchalantly straightened a stack of papers that Carmilla’s outburst had knocked askew.

 

 _“What have you done to her?”_ Carmilla snarled, her voice causing the walls to shake.

 

“Haven’t I already given you what you wanted, my dear? You wanted your little pet safe and she will be: so long as you don’t keep up this habit of dreadful behavior you’re beginning to develop. I simply had to ensure she wouldn’t encourage you into any more… _disobedience,_ ” the Dean said, examining her fingernails as if Carmilla’s unspoken threats were of no more consequence to her than the dust that dared besmirch her perfect manicure.

 

 _“She sleeps like the dead!”_ Carmilla shouted, pacing agitatedly back and forth in front of the desk. “She’s been like that for hours, still as the grave, barely even breathing, her heartbeat impossibly slow, all of this _ever since you used her against me._ You know this isn’t what I wanted, that this isn’t what I agreed to, _Mother.”_

 

“You foolish, lovesick child, there are no lawyers here. And this is not a court of law, _Mircalla._ I am the judge, jury, and _executioner_ here, if need be. And I will not tolerate this behavior, not even from you,” the Dean said, her voice dangerously low, the temperature in the room dropping drastically.

 

Carmilla recoiled as if she’d been struck, all the air flying out of her chest in a _whoosh._

 

“Do you understand now, dear heart? Play your part well, be good to your mother, and you will have everything your heart desires. Really, love, is that too much to ask?” the Dean continued, reaching out to cup Carmilla’s cheek.

 

“And if I don’t?”

 

The Dean chuckled. “Oh, darling. I think you already know how that ends. You are my dearest child, Mircalla, but even you are expendable, as you well know. Your little sweethearts can always be crushed underfoot like the insignificant insects they are. Perhaps if not by the light we worship, then young William would do the honors? While you look on, of course, all helpless and smitten and brokenhearted, I’m sure he would enjoy that. And for you, my darling, I can always rustle up another coffin filled with blood. Now what is it to be, love?” she said, smirking like the cat that ate the canary as she gingerly brushed a lock of hair out of Carmilla’s face, and Carmilla flinched away.

 

 “I understand, Mother,” Carmilla said, her voice trembling, staring at her boots as she forced herself to speak past the lump in her throat. “Please, just give her back to me. I will do anything you ask, just give her back to me,” she added, almost too quietly for the Dean to hear.

 

“Oh, dear heart, I knew you would see reason. I have something as a reward for your devotion,” the Dean said, unlocking a drawer in her desk, and withdrawing an artifact from within. A pendant, that matched the one in Carmilla’s fist in every way except in color: it was black as the night.

 

“Your little liebling merely sleeps, and she will be yours for as long as you keep your promises. Take this, and when she wears its twin you will be able to visit her in dreams, and she will never know that she is merely dreaming. She will never age, never sicken, never die--”

 

_“What?”_

 

“See, my darling girl? Even your dear Maman can be moved to mercy,” the Dean said, her voice and smile sickeningly sweet. “Your pet will live as long as you do, as long as you wish her to, _ma chère._ She will be embroiled in an eternal, wondrous dream, and you will be able to be right beside her, in a perfect world of your own creation.”

 

Carmilla numbly reached out to accept the pendant, but then faltered halfway, stopping herself. “This isn’t what I want, Mother,” she said softly. “This isn’t what Laura would want.”

 

“Careful, girl,” the Dean growled, soft and low. “I have offered you Elysium itself, though it is fast becoming apparent to me that you cannot appreciate my goodwill for what it is. Children such as you and that little moppet can never be trusted to know what they it is that they truly desire. Think reasonably, my dear girl. In no other universe but one of our own making could such petty mortals love the infinite and abominable creatures that we are.”

 

Carmilla froze at that, and silence stretched between them.

 

The Dean sighed, shaking her head in disbelief as she rubbed her temples. “ _For the love of all things unholy, Mircalla, my patience is wearing thin._ Take the pendant _now,_ before I rescind my generous offer entirely,” she ordered, proffering the necklace once again.

 

Carmilla snapped to attention immediately, snatching the pendant out of her mother’s grasp before she could change her mind. There was no winning a conflict with her mother, there was only damage reduction. And whatever her mother had planned, the extent of the damage would not, _could not_ extend to Laura.

 

She chewed her lip, pausing in the doorway as she turned to leave. “And you swear that will Laura will be safe, so long as I do what you say? On the river Styx, on the Tigris and the Euphrates?”

 

“On all the rivers in this world and the next, _mein liebling._ Your Laura will be under my protection as much as she is under yours. Perhaps even safer with me than she would be under you,” the Dean laughed, mockingly putting her hand over her heart.

 

Carmilla’s hands clenched into fists around the pendants, the sharp edges digging into her skin, her shoulders shaking. “Very well,” Carmilla said, forcing a tight-lipped smile to the Dean, acrid vomit rising in her throat as she all but choked on the words. “Then I will be the picture of filial duty, Mother.”

 

The Dean beamed back at her deliberately, not even attempting to hide the threat of her bared fangs. “Good girl,” she called after her dutiful daughter. “If I had known it would have such a dramatic effect on your behavior, darling, I might have even let you keep the last one, if only you had asked me.”

 

Carmilla whirled back around to face her, eyes wild. “You don’t get to bring Ell into this. Not now, not ever, never again.”

 

“Oh darling, I can and will say whatever suits my purposes. As long as we both live, I will always hold all the cards, my dear. Always.”

 

Carmilla grabbed onto the doorway, fingers digging into the frame, her superhuman grip tearing it off the wall as she struggled to bite her tongue. She knew Maman was right, as she had always known, and there was not a sarcastic remark or venomous retort that could change that.

 

It was no use to fight. It never was. There could be no other option but to do as Maman wished. That was the story, time and time again. “Submit or die” had always been Maman’s way. She would submit, and she would live. She would submit, and _Laura_ would live.

 

“I know, Maman,” Carmilla said, pushing off of the wall and bolting away with her vampiric speed. She needed to kill something, _anything,_ later, let off steam, take back some small control of her life, but first…

 

 

* * *

 

 

Laura. 

 

She had to check on Laura.

 

Even though she knew Laura wouldn’t wake no matter how loud she was, Carmilla opened the door to their dorm and slipped in without a sound. Somehow it seemed wrong to disturb the silence that had settled over the room--a rare event to be sure.

 

Before… whatever it was Mother had done to her, Laura had hardly been able to go ten seconds without blurting out whatever ridiculous thing was running through her mind, much less half a day.

 

Carmilla sat down the bed beside her, absentmindedly turning over the pendants in her hand. She smiled, leaning down to smooth Laura’s hair out of her face. She’d never seen Laura look so….. peaceful. Laura was energy and effervescence and light, constantly in motion, never without something to say.

 

To see her silent as the grave was… _wrong._

 

 _Not like the grave,_ Carmilla reminded herself. Laura was alive and well. She was safe this way. They both were.

  
“For what it’s worth… I’m sorry it worked out this way, Cupcake,” Carmilla said as she put on the black pendant. She turned the red one over in her hands again, considering for a moment. She still had no idea how these damn things _worked._ And knowing Mother… It had to have some kind of catch.


	2. Chapter 2

Consequences be damned, Carmilla had to know if Laura was alright, if whatever it was that Mother had done to her was hurting her, if she’d ever hear her go on one of her ridiculous self-righteous rants ever again.

“Buckle up, Creampuff,” Carmilla murmured as she gently pulled back Laura’s hair. She paused with the ruby pendant still in hand, hesitating. “I don’t know how the hell this works, or if you can even hear me from wherever you are, but I’m going to fix this. I’m going to get you out of there, I promise. I’m not some big damn hero like you want me to be, but if it means getting you out of this…” she stopped, taking a moment to swallow the lump in her throat.

“I swear I’ll tear the whole world apart if that’s what it takes to get you back, Laura.” And then she slipped the pendant over Laura’s head.

 

* * *

 

It was the music that Carmilla heard first, a waltz played by a string quartet rising above the sounds of a crowd of revelers in the distance. She knew this place, this moment in time. She still remembered what it had been like to taste her first champagne, like liquid starlight sparkling in her mouth, the exhilaration of stealing kisses and dances whenever she could sneak away, and then later…

_Weak._

_Pathetic._

_Alone in the dark._

_The cool edge of a knife at her throat._

Carmilla grimaced. Of _course_ Mother had sent them to the night of her own murder. “Now that’s just in poor taste,” she muttered under her breath.

It was hardly her fondest memory, but until she found Laura and figured out how to make sense of this mess, it would have to do. She toyed with the pendant, and as her fingers closed around it, her senses sharpened, honing in on something she instantly recognized as Laura, as if the artifact was drawing Carmilla to her.

The scent of warmth and sunlight and morning dew enveloped her, and Carmilla closed her eyes for a moment, drinking it in. She followed it through the winding halls of the castle, keeping to the shadows; even if it was just a dream, there was no one here she’d like to meet, nothing tying her to this place but the one she sought.

She found Laura in the library, fluttering with nervous energy, frantically searching the shelves and thumbing through tomes that were ancient even in the 17th century.

 _“Laura,”_ she breathed, and as she turned to face her, Carmilla flew forward, wrapping her arms around her as tightly as she dared, pulling her close, taking her in, making sure this was real, that Laura was real… or at least whatever part of her that the Dean had trapped here.

 _Laura, Laura, Laura,_ her senses screamed. Wherever they were, whatever spell Mother had used to trap her, somehow this was real, was _her Laura._

“Oof, uh, hi! It’s um, nice to see you too, Carm,” Laura squeaked, and Carmilla pulled back, studying her face.

“Are you hurt? Did she do anything to you?” she asked, tucking Laura’s hair behind her ears to look more closely, cupping Laura’s face in both hands.

“I’m fine!” Laura squeaked, her cheeks flushing as she leaned away, pulling Carmilla’s hands down and clasping them in hers.

A hint of a smile worked its way onto Carmilla’s face. “Glad to hear it, cupcake.”

Laura cleared her throat, trying (and failing) to not look horrifically embarrassed. “So, um. Yeah! I’m fine. Really. Just--one second I’m in the dorm, and you’re yelling at me to take off this thing--” she stammered, gesturing to the ruby pendant around her neck, the same one that Carmilla had put back on her in the real world-- “which I can’t take off, by the way. And then the next thing I know, I’m here in who knows where or when--wait…. By _‘she,’_ do you mean--”

“Yeah,” Carmilla rasped, and whatever sense of relief she’d had at finding Laura instantly evaporated. “Mother. The necklace was a trap from my mother.”

“Now that’s just playing dirty,” Laura muttered, stepping back and scanning the shelves. “Any idea how to um, reverse it? Or what this place is? I tried looking through the books here, but my German seriously sucks, so I wasn’t exactly making any headway--”

“There’s nothing that’s gonna help us here, cutie,” Carmilla said, biting her lip and ruffling Laura’s hair, suddenly interested in looking anywhere but at Laura’s face.

“This creepy library is _huge,_ and we have to have gotten zapped here for a reason, there has to be something here we can use!” Laura protested, gesticulating wildly with her hands to emphasize her point.

Carmilla’s lips quirked up slightly in a small smile as she shook her head; that was her Laura, stubborn to a fault. “You can look if you want, cupcake, but there won’t be anything useful.”

Laura shot her a skeptical look. “And what makes you so sure?”

“Let’s just say I’ve been here before, okay?” Carmilla said, anxiously running a hand through her hair. “And it isn’t a place we should hang around.”

Laura’s expression softened, and she stepped closer, tentatively reaching out for Carmilla’s hands again to offer some comfort. “Carmilla, where are we?” she asked.

“It’s nothing, just some mind game of my mother’s.” Carmilla shook her head. It was one thing to talk about her oh-so-tragic past during Laura’s pseudo-interrogation and following sock puppet theater. It was another thing entirely to relive it.

_What is this, Mother? Some sort of threat, about how I belong to you and always will? If so, message received: loud and clear._

“Carm…” Laura pressed, crouching down slightly to try and get a look at Carmilla’s face.

Carmilla let out a sort of hopeless, breathy laugh. She’d had to have fallen for the only girl in the world who could never just let something go. Trying to keep something from Laura was a loser’s game if there ever was one. She chewed her lip, trying to find the proper words, and she swept the hair out of her eyes again, still not able to meet Laura's gaze.

“This is my father’s library, Laura. Mother apparently thought it would be just _wonderful_   to send us to the time and place I was murdered.”

“Wait, so this is--you mean--are you sure? Can she even do that? How can she do that?” Laura sputtered.

Carmilla’s eyebrows raised. “Of course I’m sure. Being murdered isn’t exactly something you forget, cupcake."

“That’s… awful,” Laura said softly, and she gave Carmilla’s hands a squeeze. 

 _Alright, enough of this tragic schmaltz-fest._  

"So, what’re you thinking, creampuff? How’s it living up to that sock puppet theater fantasy of yours?” she said, carefully changing the subject.

But Laura, being... well, Laura, didn’t buy it. “Why would she do that? And again, _how_ can she do that? Because you’re like, well, still you, so you can’t exactly get murdered twice, and okay, even if she is some ancient vampire creature of unspeakable evil, I’m pretty sure manipulating the space time continuum wouldn’t be on her résumé--”

 _Okay then. Definitely not going to get out of this one._ Figuring it was better to stop her before Laura forgot how to breathe, Carmilla braced herself, twining their fingers together and clearing her throat to get Laura’s attention, cutting her off mid-rant.

“That’s because none of this is real, buttercup,” Carmilla said under her breath, almost too soft for Laura to hear. Suddenly the floor looked _very_ interesting.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Laura asked skeptically. “I know you’re a big, deep philosophy major and all, but that’s not exactly helpful--”

“I’m not kidding, Laura.” Carmilla’s eyes were still glued to her boots.

“Okay, _what the frilly hell is going on?”_ Laura demanded, dropping her hands from Carmilla’s and pulling back.

“You’re dreaming, Laura. Because of that,” she gestured at Laura’s necklace. “You’re real. And I’m real, because I’m using this thing I got from my mother’s office,” she lifted up her matching pendant, “to be here. But everything else? Just a mind game from my mother. She pulled a Sleeping Beauty on you, Laura. Everything here is just a dream. I’m sorry.”


	3. Chapter 3

Carmilla grimaced as Laura launched into one of her famous tirades, a tide of questions and objections pouring out of her as if she’d just unstopped the ocean itself. God, she really should have known better by now. Giving Laura an inch as good as gave her a mile, and this was not the place for Laura to start tugging at the threads until something gave. (Because that’s what Laura always did, and Carmilla was self-aware enough to know that she would cave first, hell, a brick wall would give in before Laura Hollis would.)

_We don’t have time for this._

“Cupcake,” Carmilla groaned in exasperation, grabbing Laura’s shoulders and looking her in the eye. “I know you have questions, Laura. And I want to know what’s really going on here as much as you do. I really do. But this is about to be a murder scene. _My_ murder scene. We need to go.”

“Yeah, that’s, erm, probably a good idea, getting away from the whole uh, murder thing,” Laura babbled, extricating herself from Carmilla’s arms. She tugged at her sleeves briefly, then straightened her back, waving a stern finger in Carmilla’s face. “But you are _so_ in for it once we’re out of this creepfest, Carm. Don’t think you’re getting out of giving me some answers on the whole time warp front.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, buttercup.”

Carmilla took the lead, reaching back to offer Laura her hand, almost resisting the urge to smirk when she heard Laura’s pulse speed up as she clasped it.

“Soooo,” Laura said, looking around at the weathered stonework as they made their way through the halls, craning her neck to look at the ceiling. “This is where you grew up? Why am I not surprised that it’s like something out of a horror movie, sans cobwebs and screaming?”

“Oh there’ll be plenty of that soon enough,” Carmilla chuckled. “This is just a shadow of a dream, creampuff. But yes, one of the place where I was born and raised.”

“That’s… It was pretty messed up of your mom to send us here. Any idea why?”

Carmilla snorted. “My life is an exercise in all things cliche and fucked up, cupcake. And in the grand scheme of things my mother has done that are fucked up, sending us here barely even registers.”

Laura winced. “Yeah, I can see how after….” she trails off, though Carmilla still heard her unspoken _‘after Ell,’_ could all but hear the gears turning as the other girl decided better than to finish that sentence and instead rephrased it. “Er, after everything she’s done, how that would just be a blip on the radar in comparison,” she said. “But it’s still fucked up.”

“And even someone like me deserves better?” Carmilla teased.

Laura fidgeted for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Yeah. You do,” she said, lacing their fingers together. “Centuries of what amounts to basically murder aside, no one deserves what she’s put you through. Not even you.”

“You’d be the first to think so, sweetheart,” Carmilla murmured, so softly that just maybe Laura didn’t hear it.

_Escape from probable murder scene first, deal with feelings talk later. Or never. Never sounds like a great option right now._

She cleared her throat. “We should keep moving. We’re not out of the woods yet, creampuff.”

There was a secret passage that led under the cellars that Carmilla had found when she was thirteen, and that she was hoping it was still there in... whatever the hell it was they were in.

“Right. The whole um, fleeing thing. Good plan.”

“Running away is always what I’ve been best at, buttercup,” Carmilla replied, running her hands over the individual stones in the wall in front of them, what she knew appeared to be a dead end, but she knew if she pushed the right one, would open a path that would lead them under the courtyard. If she could just remember which one….

“Please tell me you aren’t feeling up a wall just for kicks.”

“Are you really asking me if I’m trying to seduce a stone wall? Oh wait, I did flirt with you, so I suppose you do have a basis for that assumption.”

“Oh, you’re undead and aloof and way too cool for feelings or relationships beyond being a broody jerk, but _I’m_ the stone wall in this relationship. Sure.”

“It’s a secret passage, sundance, I’m _actually_ trying to be productive and get us out of here,” Carmilla retorted, dropping to her knees and shoving at some of the lower stones. Finally, something clicked, and the wall slid down in front of them, the bricks forming staircases leading deep into the dark.

“What was that you were saying about us being in a relationship, cupcake?” she said, entirely too smug as she got to her feet.

“What was that you were saying about us not being out of the woods yet?” Laura retorted, hastily changing the subject.

“Be my guest then, cutie,” she said, arching an eyebrow and gesturing for Laura to go on ahead into the dark tunnel.

“Because of course having torches or something in the creepy secret passageway was too much to ask,” Laura groaned.

“Just stay close and you’ll be fine, buttercup,” Carmilla said, taking Laura’s hand and tugging her close. “Vampires can see in the dark, remember?”

“...Right. Okay then,” Laura replied, hesitantly following the other girl down the stairs as the passageway slid shut behind them.

Laura jumped at that, and it took every ounce of Carmilla’s control to not do the same, as she squeezed Laura’s hand and forced her own not to shake. She hadn’t been underground since she’d been buried alive, and dammit if the stale air down here didn't taste the same as it had in that godforsaken coffin Mother had put her in. Sure, she could see, and move, and talk to Laura this time but…. the similarities were still unpleasant.

_Think about something else. Anything else._

_Laura. Focus on Laura._

“Not exactly how I pictured it when I imagined the two of us being alone in the dark, cupcake.”

“Really? You’re trying to flirt with me _now?”_

“Oh no, was I supposed to schedule an appointment first?”

“Yes. And would you look at that! My calendar’s completely booked. Check again next century,” Laura deadpanned.

“Assuming we survive the semester, maybe I will,” Carmilla replied, then leaned in close so she could whisper in Laura’s ear: _“But I don’t think you really want me to wait that long.”_

She was gratified with a responding hitch in the other girl’s breath, followed by Laura shaking her head and muttering _“Damn it”_ as Carmilla laughed softly.

“You’re impossible,” Laura groaned.

“That’s pretty rich coming from you, creampuff. Relax, we’re almost out of this hellhole. Whatever else Mother’s dreamed up for us awaits just...beyond… here,” Carmilla said as they reached a dead end, feeling the walls and low ceiling until she found the trap door above them, which she promptly pushed up, flooding the tunnel with silvery moonlight.

She hopped up into the courtyard first, then reached back to pull Laura up with her.

“Fun,” Laura said, accepting the lift. “What new and fascinating plans does she have to kill us now?”

“If she wanted us dead, we already would be, cupcake. Mother… must have something else in mind,” Carmilla said carefully.

“Any ideas as to what that is? Or you know, any elaboration on what you said earlier about ‘going all Sleeping Beauty?’”

Carmilla sighed. She vaguely remembered this place--it was a garden, or at least it once was, before it was forgotten sometime throughout the ages and left to rot and overgrow. There was a beauty to it regardless, the ivy and hedges long since grown past the trellises meant to keep them tidy and in place. Wild and free, in spite of what once bound them.

It was a mess of stone and flora, wildflowers blooming up between the cracks of the tile that was laid on the garden’s path and throughout the clearing the secret passage had opened into. This used to be her secret place, though she couldn’t remember if she’d ever snuck away here at night--no, she couldn’t have, she would have remembered this view, the ancient fountains bubbling with starlight and stone turned to silver under the light of the moon, dew glistening like constellations on the greenery surrounding them.

It was about as safe as they could get in whatever hell this was, as good a spot as any to face the music.

“You might want to be sitting down for this, creampuff.” Carmilla wandered over to one of the worn stone benches, taking a seat and motioning for Laura to come do the same.

“That… doesn’t bode well,” Laura said, dubiously sitting down next to her.

Carmilla bit her lip, wringing her hands together as her eyes fell to her boots again. “No, cupcake, no it does not.”

“Start from the beginning?” Laura prompted, gently putting her hands over Carmilla’s.

The other girl blinked, looking up at Laura in surprise. “...Okay then. How much do you remember of what happened before you got here?” she asked softly.

“Just what I told you, that one second we were talking, and the next you saw this necklace thing and you were yelling at me to take it off, and then I got the world’s most massive headache and then… Nothing, everything just went…. dark, until I sort of…. found myself? It was like…” Laura paused for a moment, searching for the words.

“You know how when you’re thinking, there’s not a tiny you inside your head, there’s just… emptiness except for your own thoughts? Just a bunch of inky black that you fill up with images and ridiculous pop songs and your own internal monologue or what you’re trying to think of to say. It was kind of like that…. Until it wasn’t anymore. And then it wasn’t like I woke up, I was just suddenly… a person again, not just a mess of thoughts floating in oblivion anymore. And I kind of stepped out of the dark and… into here. Wherever this is,” she waved a hand at their surroundings, then made a face.

“And I still can’t get this damn thing off,” she said, grumpily tugging at the ruby pendant.

 _“Don’t,”_ Carmilla said quickly, grabbing Laura’s hand that was holding the pendant. “I mean,” she cleared her throat, “Even if you _could_ take it off, you can’t. It’s… I think it’s what’s holding you here, instead of in that oblivion. It’s linked to mine.”

She gripped Laura’s hand tighter, her voice going soft. “If you took it off, I don’t know if I could find you again, Laura.”

“Okay, so, um, still waiting on that explanation here, Carm,” Laura said, quickly changing the subject.

“Right,” Carmilla murmured. “You at least deserve that.” She pulled her hand away, clenching her fists until her knuckles turned white, fighting to find the courage to speak.

_Coward, coward, **coward.**_

_You frightened craven wretch._

_You should have fought harder, or never fought at all._

“This is…” She fiddled with her own pendant. “The necklace was a trap from my mother. It controls the wearer’s mind or something like that. I don’t know exactly how it works. I think this one is linked to it, or it’s what she used to control you. I’m not sure. But it’s what’s letting me appear here.”

“How did you get that, by the way?” Laura asked warily.

“I’ll… I’m getting there, creampuff, I promise. After you fainted, Mother used the necklace you’re wearing to possess you. She…” Carmilla faltered. “She made me an offer, Laura,” she said quietly.

“Carm…” Laura said, her voice somewhere between concern and a warning. “What kind of offer?”

“One that I couldn’t refuse,” she whispered, feeling like her voice was about to break.

“That’s not an answer,” Laura snapped.

Carmilla laughed, bitterly, quietly. “Do you have to ask, cupcake? Do you really want to know the answer to that?”

“I want to know what the hell’s going on, Carm. You can’t just brood or sulk your way out of this, and obviously it involves me too, so yeah, I really want to know.”

“Laura,” she said, forcing herself to tear her eyes away from her boots and meet Laura’s furious gaze. “She knew about our plans, about everything. She knows every move we make even before we make it. Hell, Mother knew even more about the sword than we did.”

“Okay, that is _so_ many kinds of suck, but you’re still not answering my question.”

“She tore apart any plan, any protest I tried to make. Just like she always does. Made it seem so hopeless to even think of opposing her. We can’t use the sword now, Laura, now that she knows about it. Even if it didn’t consume the soul of whoever uses it--”

“Wait, _what?”_

Carmilla grimaced. “Like I said, she knew more about the sword than we did. The Blade of Hastur cuts both ways, cupcake. It’s buried for a reason. It destroys anyone who uses it.”

 _“Fuck.”_   Laura slumped over, resting her head in her hands. “That was our best plan by far. Okay, our _only_ plan, but still. I… I can’t blame you for not wanting to go through with it now, though.”

Carmilla shrugged. “It’s not like I could go after it now that she knows we were planning on it, buttercup. The moment I left she’d have one or both of us messily murdered. She’s keeping a closer watch on me now more than ever.”

“...Because of the offer?”

Carmilla once again found herself in the enviable position of being on the wrong end of Laura Hollis’s stubbornness.

Because of course the cupcake wouldn’t let that go. Wouldn’t, _couldn’t_ let anything go.

“...Yes.” Carmilla sighed, and now it was her turn to hang her head.

“Carm, just what exactly did she offer you?” Laura pressed, gentler than before, reaching out to put her hand on the other girl’s shoulder. Offering comfort that Carmilla felt she definitely didn’t deserve.

 _“You,”_ she said, her voice the barest breath of a whisper. “Cupcake, _Laura,_ she offered me _you.”_   She shook her head, filled with disgust at the thought. “Mother gave me an ultimatum: submit or watch you die, right then and there. And I couldn’t tell her no, Laura. Not again. I can’t do that again, Laura. I’m sorry.”

Laura froze, speechless for what was probably the first time in her life.

“She was going to use her power to walk you into the sacrifice yourself. With that necklace. It allowed her to use some kind of mind control or something, so that she could speak through you. And…. after I agreed to her terms, she just… left you. But you still didn’t wake. For hours and hours, you didn’t stir, didn’t wake. You simply slept like the dead. Barely breathing. Heart hardly beating.”

“...Like ‘Sleeping Beauty,’” Laura said softly.

Carmilla nodded. “I was furious, and so utterly terrified at the possibility that she’d hurt you somehow. She had planned on it from the moment she set that trap for you. She had to have. She just wanted the satisfaction of _putting me in my place first_ ,” she snarled.

“When you didn’t wake up, I confronted her about it,” she continued. “Mother ‘clarified’ our deal and the role I was meant to play in it, said that she cursed you to guarantee you ‘didn’t lead me to disobedience.’ Amongst a myriad of other threats, of course.”

“And then she offered me this,” Carmilla lifted up the black pendant, her fist clenching around it as tightly as she dared. “Said it would let me see you, speak to you. All the while pretending it was some sort of token of her goodwill, as if she hadn’t caused all of this in the first place. As if I were just a petulant child and she my longsuffering parent. I tried to argue with her, but that was about as useful as it’s ever been. So I took it. And I ran. I took it and I ran back to you, Laura.”

“So, she’s using me to get to you,” Laura said slowly.

“Yeah, something like that,” Carmilla rasped.

“That _bitch!”_ Laura shouted, full of righteous fury as she leaped to her feet. “She does not get to just fridge me like some poorly written love interest in a sub-par action movie--oh, she is _so_ going down now--just you wait--”

Her indignant tirade trailed off once she realized Carmilla was smirking at her.

“Sooooo,” she drawled. “I’m your love interest now am I, cupcake?”

“That’s--I mean--Okay, _first of all,_ now is not the time for flirting, and don’t think I’m not super pissed about all this, and your mom is so in for it, because when I get my hands on her I’m going to--oh come on, we get it, you can quit it with the ‘seduction eyes,’ Karnstein--”

“‘Seduction eyes,’ really now? Do tell me more about these wild things your imagination keeps coming up with--”

 _“Not the time, Carm!”_ Laura squeaked. She cleared her throat, settling down a bit and steadying herself. “So. One way or another, nefarious dean-mom of doom is going down. We just need to… explore other options!”

Carmilla just chuckled, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair. “Creampuff, when you say it, I almost believe it.”

“Oh, you’d better believe it. I may be out cold but I’m definitely not just going to take this lying down. So what if we can’t use the magical god-killing sword thing? We’ll find another way, dammit!” Laura exclaimed. “There has to be another way to take down your evil fairytale-imitating mom.”

“There is…. one other option. Someone even Mother fears,” Carmilla said carefully. “And I might know a witch who could help us, but it’s still gonna be a bit of a desperate gambit, Laura.”

Laura snorted. “And retrieving the evil magic sword from the depths of the ocean wasn’t?”

Carmilla’s lip twitched. She couldn’t possibly be seriously considering this. Shouldn’t be. But Laura’s reckless optimism was turning out to be entirely too contagious.

_If it backfires we might be stuck with hell on earth. But then again, if it backfires, we’ll be too dead to care anyways._

Carmilla shrugged. “Not in the same way as dealing with the Faery Queen would be, cupcake. Desperate times, desperate measures.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do you like THEM apples?
> 
> Because of course I couldn't resist tying into other material, ie the glorious ridiculousness that is season 0 
> 
> Eh?
> 
> Eh?


End file.
